Hoodies may have been banned from Bluewater but they will be out in force in an Ashford shopping centre today.

A group of young people will be in County Square to challenge perceptions and remind people of the good work youngsters do.

Ashford’s one of ten towns around the country where “goody hoodies” will spend the day as part of a campaign revealing issues young people want to tackle.

The “Don’t Write Us Off” event involves Agents4Change volunteers, who are aged between 16 and 25, and who have asked hundreds of young people about their top concerns.

The information they have canvassed will be used to set up volunteering projects to help tackle these issues and form a platform for young people to lobby both local and national government.

The hoodies will be handing out fortune cookies to shoppers containing messages about their concerns.

One of the “goody hoodies”, Marco Kor, thinks the 2005 hoody ban by Bluewater gave young people a bad press.

“I can understand the reason behind it as there are reasons hoodies can be intimidating, but it stigmatises all young people wearing hoodies as being up to no good.

“What we’re trying to do though the Agents4 Change programme is show that young people are doing a lot of good though out the country.”